The colombian bass player, Santiago Botero named “El Ombligo” (navel in spanish) to a musical endeavor that plays with the subtle relationships that exist between cumbia music, old school jazz, vallenato music and free improvisation. The conducting thread in this exercise is a thorough research around the musical possibilities that emerge by experimenting around the legacy of Andres Landero, the all time king of “Cumbia San Jacintera”.

El Ombligo not only deconstructs the rhythmic universe of Landero, but it creates a a musical bridge with Ornette Coleman, John Zorn’s Masada Quartet, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Colombia’s all time virtuoso organist Jaime Llano Gonzalez with a significant portion of Bogota’s jazz and new tropical music scene. These elements were immortalized in El Ombligo’s latest recording “Canción Psicotrópica y Jaleo Vol. 2”.